No. 8 seed Amanda Anisimova pulled out a 4-6, 6-3, 6-4 victory over Great Britain’s Jodie Burrage to open the HSBC Championships on Monday in London.
Burrage broke Anisimova at the outset in order to control the first set. It was tied 2-2 in the second before the American won four of the final five games and the first three of the third set to stifle the home-crowd favorite’s upset attempt. Anisimova had 12 aces to Burrage’s nine and saved 3 of 6 break points.
In other three-setters, Sonay Kartal of Great Britain defeated Australia’s Daria Kasatkina 6-1, 3-6, 6-3, and Brazilian Beatriz Haddad Maia charged past Czech opponent Petra Kvitova 2-6, 6-4, 6-4. Germany’s Tatjana Maria and Russia’s Anastasia Zakharova advanced in straight sets.
The final match of the day was suspended due to darkness and will be completed Tuesday. In that one, Czech sixth seed Karolina Muchova won the first set 7-6 (5) before Australian Maddison Inglis took the second 6-3.
Libema Open
No. 3 seed Elise Mertens of Belgium needed just 68 minutes to defeat Bulgaria’s Viktoriya Tomova 6-4, 6-0 in opening-round action in ‘s-Hertogenbosch, Netherlands.
Mertens won a majority of both her first-serve points (20 of 29) and her first-return points (19 of 32) against the overmatched Tomova. Two more seeded players advanced to the next round: No. 7 Lulu Sun of New Zealand (6-1, 6-3 over the Netherlands’ Anouck Vrancken Peeters) and No. 8 Veronika Kudermetova of Russia, who beat her younger sister, Polina, for the second time this year, 6-3, 6-3.
Also advancing in straight sets were China’s Yue Yuan, Russian Anna Blinkova and Italian Elisabetta Cocciaretto.
–Field Level Media
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